Dynamic scrolling-ticker for initiating telecommunications services

ABSTRACT

A system and method for initiating communications between a first wireless device and a second wireless device. The method includes the steps of detecting the status of the first wireless device, notifying the second wireless device via a scrolling ticker message based on the detecting step and establishing a communication session between the first and second wireless devices. The detecting step includes generating an alert based on a predefined event. The system for establishing a communication path between a first mobile device and a second mobile device includes an IMS core, a presence server communicatively coupled to the IMS core and in communication with the first mobile device, a scrolling ticker server in communication with the presence server and with the second mobile device, wherein the presence server communicates availability of the first mobile device and the scrolling ticker notifies the second mobile device of the availability of the first mobile device.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The instant application is a continuation application of, and claimspriority to, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/504,132, filed Aug. 14,2006. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/504,132 claims benefit of U.S.provisional patent application No. 60/707,361, filed Aug. 11, 2005. U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/504,132 is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety. U.S. provisional patent application No.60/707,361 is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to enabling two subscribers of telecommunicationsservices to interact with each other based on notification ofavailability. More particularly, the invention relates to systems andmethods for utilizing an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) in combinationwith other servers to control peer to peer and other types ofcommunications based on the notification of presence of the subscribers.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

As new wireless applications continue to be developed, wireless carriersare increasingly looking for methods and systems to more costeffectively provide services to their subscribers and to make thoseservices more convenient and user friendly for those subscribers.Additionally, the provision of content to wireless subscribers continuesto be a priority for carriers as subscribers are demanding an everincreasing amount of data and content be available on their wirelessdevices.

Recently, carriers and vendors of wireless devices have developedsystems, methods and wireless devices that deliver content tosubscribers in the form of a scrolling ticker which contains headlines,sports scores, stock information, or other data on a portion of thedisplay screen. For example, such systems are commercially available onMotorola wireless device model V557 and available to subscribers ofCingular Wireless, the assignee of the present invention.

As part of the 3GPP standards, cellular and other telecommunicationproviders are deploying IP Multimedia Subsystems (“IMS”), a nextgeneration network that uses the IP protocol to control the set-up andtransport of data. The IMS supports data, video, SIP-based voice over IP(VoIP) and non-SIP packetized voice, such as H.323 and MGCP. IMSintegrates with the public switched telephone network and providestraditional telephony services such as 800 numbers, caller ID and localnumber portability to wireless subscribers. IMS also supports instantmessaging, push-to-talk, video conferencing and video on demandapplications. Moreover, IMS provides a framework to enable peer-to-peerservices among wireless users.

Finally, wireless providers have developed presence services todynamically determine the presence and availability of subscribers. Suchpresence servers often indicate whether a particular subscriber islogged on to a data service and which means of communication areavailable to that subscriber.

Up until now, each of these technologies has stood alone and thereforehave failed to reach their potential in providing cost-effective, userfriendly applications to subscribers. Hence, there is a need in the artfor systems and methods to integrate and interface the scrolling tickertechnology into the IMS subsystem to enable communications using thattechnology to control or initiate communications services through theIMS subsystem. Moreover, there is a need integrate and interface thescrolling ticker technology with the presence servers as a means fornotification of presence to subscribers. As set forth in greater detailbelow, this invention overcomes those and other needs and providesfurther advantages to users of telecommunications systems.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention satisfies the aforementioned needs in the art by providingsystems and methods for initiating communications between a firstwireless device and a second wireless device. The method includes thesteps of detecting the status of the first wireless device, notifyingthe second wireless device via a scrolling ticker message based on thedetecting step, and then establishing a communication session betweenthe first and second wireless devices. The detecting step includesgenerating an alert based on a predefined event, wherein the predefinedevent includes one of powering on the first wireless device, a login toa network or service by the first wireless device, posting of newcontent by a subscriber, or signing up for new service by a subscriber.The detecting step may be performed periodically or may be requested bythe second wireless device. If requested by the second wireless device,the method may include a detecting step that if the first wirelessdevice is busy, the detecting step repeats until it is detected that thesecond wireless device is no longer busy and then performs the notifyingstep. The establishing step is performed based on interacting with thesecond wireless device or may be performed without user intervention.The communication may be a peer-to-peer communication between the firstwireless device and the second wireless device, or may be a conferencecall in which the detecting step determines whether the first wirelessdevice is connected to the conference call.

In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, a method ofmanaging a communication between a wireless device and atelecommunications device by the wireless device is provided. Thetelecommunications device may be a wireless device or a wireline device.That method includes detecting the availability of thetelecommunications device, notifying the wireless device via a scrollingticker message based on the detecting step, and if thetelecommunications device is available, establishing the communicationbetween the wireless device and the telecommunications device. Thecommunication in that embodiment may be a conference call and mayinclude a plurality of telecommunications devices wherein the notifyingstep is performed each time the detecting step detects a change inparticipation by one of the plurality of telecommunications devices.

The system of the present invention is a system for initiating acommunications path between a first mobile device and a second mobiledevice including an IMS core, a presence server communicatively coupledto the IMS core and in communication with the first mobile device, ascrolling ticker server in communication with the presence server andwith the second mobile device, wherein the presence server communicatesavailability of the first mobile device and the scrolling tickernotifies the second mobile device of the availability of the firstmobile device. The scrolling ticker server may be in communication withthe presence server through the IMS core or the scrolling ticker servermay be coupled to and in communication with the presence server. Thecommunication path between the first mobile device and the second mobiledevice is a peer-to-peer communication path.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

Other features of the invention are further apparent from the followingdetailed description of the embodiments of the present invention takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawing.

FIG. 1 illustrates a preferred embodiment of a communication network inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of the system architecture of an IMScommunication system in which peer-to-peer communications occurs;

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow chart illustrating the establishment ofpeer-to-peer communications;

FIG. 4 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the present inventionwhich supports the operation, management and security of conferencecalling.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Those skilled in the art will recognize that certain acronyms as usedherein have industry standard meanings. For the convenience of thereader, the acronyms set forth below shall have the meanings asindicated, or if such acronyms are not listed, they shall have theirindustry standard meanings.

AS—Application Server

CSCF—Call State Control Functions

P-CSCF—Proxy Call State Control Functions

I-CSCF—Interrogating Call State Control Functions

S-CSCF—Serving Call State Control Functions

HSS—Home Subscriber Server

DNS/ENUM—Provides the link between MSISDN and IP

QoS—Quality of Service

GGSN—Gateway GPRS Support Node

RAN—Radio Access Network

RSS—Really Simple Syndication

SGSN—Serving GPRS Support Node

SDP—Session Description Protocol

SIP—Session Initiation Protocol

UE—User Equipment

With reference to FIG. 1, there is shown a functional block diagram ofone embodiment of the present invention. There is shown user equipment(UE) 12, 14, which, in accordance with the present invention, are tocommunicate with each other using peer to peer protocols. Functionsincluded in setting up the peer to peer communication include the IMScore 100, the presence server 30, and the scrolling ticket server 40.The UE 12, 14 may be any type of wireless communication devices,preferably with GPRS data capabilities. At least one of UE 12 or UE 14supports scrolling ticker technology such as the afore-mentionedMotorola V577. For the purposes of this description, we will assume thatat least UE 14 supports scrolling ticker technology. For convenience,the terms UE and “wireless device” may be used interchangeablythroughout this specification.

The presence server 30 is known in the art and is an application serverlocated within the network and preferably designed in accordance withapplicable Open Mobile Alliance (“OMA”) standards, preferablyOMA-ERELD-Presence SIMPLE-VI 0-200602014-C, “Enabler Release Definitionfor OMA Presence SIMPLE” and references contained therein, all of whichare hereby incorporated by reference. The presence server 30 collectsinformation about the presence, or availability, of a set of wirelesssubscribers. Typically, such information may include, for example,whether a particular subscriber wireless device is powered on and withincoverage range, whether the wireless device is accepting data messagesor whether the wireless device is otherwise logged on to a particularapplication such as Instant Messaging. The presence server 30communicates with the IMS core 100 as one of potentially severalapplication servers.

The scrolling ticker server 40 is preferably a content server configuredto communicate with one or more wireless devices, such as UE 12 or UE14. The scrolling ticker server streams content to wireless devicesconfigured to receive such data. The scrolling ticker server 40 may, forexample, provide text streams based on a set of user-defined alerts,such as stock information, sports scores, news, weather, and any otherinformation. One communication protocol between the scrolling tickerserver 40 to UE 12 or UE 14 may, for example, be really simplesyndication (RSS), more specifically, the RSS 2.0 standard.

The IMS core 100 communicates with UE 12 and 14. As will be understoodby those skilled in the art, the IMS core 100 is described in relevantpart with respect to FIG. 2. Those skilled in the art will understandthat there may be other components within an IMS core not specificallyshown in the drawing. Without limiting the generality of the invention,in order to describe the operation of the peer-to-peer network 10 in thecontext of this invention, an example will be used in which UE 14 willbe assumed to be a wireless device 314 which initiates a communicationin a peer-to-peer session with UE 12, assumed in this example to bewireless device 312, when the subscriber associated with wireless device312 becomes available.

Wireless device 312, upon power-up, registers with the IMS core 20 andthe presence server 30, indicating the subscriber of wireless device 312is online and available for communication. The presence server 30 sendsa communication to the scrolling ticker server 40 indicating theavailability of subscriber wireless device 312. This communication maybe through an ISC interface between the presence server 30 and thescrolling ticker server 40, assuming that the scrolling ticker server 40is configured as an IMS application server. Alternatively, a SIPinterface may be added to the scrolling ticker server 40 to enablecommunication to proceed between the scrolling ticker server 40 and thepresence server 30 through the IMS core 100. There may also be otherinterfaces that do not traverse the IMS core, again including, but notlimited to a SIP interface. Alternatively other protocols utilizingSUBSCRIBE/NOTIFY capabilities may also be implemented. Based onpre-defined criteria on the part of the subscriber of wireless device314, a message from the scrolling ticker server 40 indicating thepresence of wireless device 312 is sent to the subscriber of wirelessdevice 314. The scrolling ticker transmission may, for example, containa data message indicating that subscriber associated with wirelessdevice 312 is available, or alternatively, it may contain data whichincludes a pointer which, if selected by the subscriber associated withwireless device 314, offers a one-click invocation of a peer-to-peersession between wireless device 312 and wireless device 314.

With reference to FIG. 2, there is shown, by way of example, anembodiment of a peer-to-peer session and protocol between wirelessdevices 312 and 314. In this example, wireless device 314 is the callingparty and wireless device 312 is the called party, and in the context ofthe present invention, it will be assumed that the subscriber ofwireless device 314 has just been notified that the user of wirelessdevice 312 has become available. Dashed lines between elements indicatecontrol signal flow, while solid lines between elements indicate dataflow. Wireless device 314 is located within a calling party visitednetwork 102 which will communicate with the calling party home network103 to authenticate the user of wireless device 314. The calling partyhome network 103 communicates with the called party home network 120 tolocate the wireless device 312 which is found in the called partyvisited network 104.

The wireless device 314 is connected to the backbone packet network 108though the radio access network (RAN) interface 106. It will beunderstood by those skilled in the art that the RAN may, in a GPRSenvironment, typically contain elements such as the serving GPRS supportnode (SGSN) and the gateway GPRS support node (GGSN). The packet network108 may be any type of network, including GPRS, EDGE, CDMA, WCDMA, orany other type of wireless data network. The packet network communicateswith the proxy call state control function (P-CSCF) 110 which istypically the first contact point into the IMS core 100 for the wirelessdevice 314. The P-CSCF 110 initiates a SIP session with the serving callstate control function (S-CSCF) 112 by issuing a SIP invitation. TheS-CSCF 112 communicates with the home subscriber server (HSS) 114 fromwhich the subscriber profile, including permissions and other controlparameters, are retrieved. The S-CSCF 112 also communicates with one ormore application servers 114 which may, for example, be presence serversor any other type of application server. The S-CSCF 112 also resolvesthe address destination of the called party home network through DNSserver 118.

Continuing with reference to FIG. 2, the peer-to-peer communicationsetup continues through the S-CSCF communicating with an interrogatingcall state control function (I-CSCF) 122 within the called party homenetwork 120. The IMS architecture within the called party home network120 and the called party visited network 104 is similar to thatdescribed above in the calling party visited network 102 and the callingparty home network 103. The I-CSCF 122 communicates with the S-CSCF 124within the called party home network 120, which in turn retrieves calledparty subscriber information from the HSS 128, including the currentlocation of the called party visited network 104 in which subscriberusing wireless device 312 is located. The S-CSCF 124 also communicateswith any application servers 126 required for operation of variousapplications. The S-CSCF 124 communicates with the P-CSCF 130 foundwithin the called party visited network 104, through the backbone packetnetwork 130 and RAN 134 to the wireless device 312.

All of the afore-mentioned communications interfaces within the IMS Core100 relate to control data and are used to set up a peer-to-peercommunications session between wireless devices 312 and 314. Once thecontrol is set up, peer-to-peer communications between wireless devices312 and 314 may occur on bearer channels 202, 204, 206, 208, 210 overwhich data is transmitted between the wireless device 312 located withinthe calling party visited network 102 and the called party visitednetwork 104.

It will be understood that variations in the peer-to-peer set-up mayexist based on implementation of the network and options selected by theusers. For example, upon notification of the availability of wirelessdevice 312, wireless device 314 may initiate the peer-to-peer sessionvia an interactive selection process or alternatively, initiate such asession at some other point in the future. By way of further example,the peer-to-peer session may be initiated automatically with nointervention by wireless device 314, with wireless device 314 willsimply be notified via a scrolling ticker message that wireless device312 has become available and the peer-to-peer session request has beeninitiated. Yet another example would involve wireless device 312initiating a peer-to-peer session, either upon registration or on usercommand, with wireless device 314 being notified via a scrolling tickermessage that wireless device 312 has initiated such a session.

It may be that for time sensitive alerts, options whereby such alertsare sent out quickly by obtaining the IP address of the receiving devicefrom the IMS core 100 and then pushed to the scrolling ticker server.Conversely, one of the UEs 12, 14 may periodically poll the presenceserver 30 to determine the presence status of the other UE, receivingeither a positive or negative response via a scrolling ticker message,or a response only when the other UE is present and available. Thus, theinvention is adaptable to either “push” or “pull” type of alerts.

With reference to FIG. 3, there is shown by way of example and notlimitation a flow chart that describes the steps taken to establish apeer-to-peer communication session through an IMS core 100 as describedin the context of the architecture of FIG. 2. As will be understood bythose skilled in the art, variations of these steps are both possiblyand likely based on the implementation of the network and user optionsselected. At step 220, an initiate SIP invitation is generated. At step222, the subscriber profile of the initiating subscriber is retrieved.At step 224, service logic is applied through access to one or moreapplication servers 114. At step 226, the address of the called party isretrieved from the DNS server 118. At that point, the SIP invite isforwarded at step 228. At step 230, the identity of the registrar of thecalled party is determined. At step 232, the profile of the calledsubscriber is retrieved from the HSS 128. At step 234, service logicdetermined from communication with application servers 126 is applied.At step 236, the invite is forwarded to the called party. At step 238,session description protocol (SDP) negotiations with the subscriberwireless device 312 occur. As will be understood by those skilled in theart, SDP may involve session announcement, session invitation, and otherforms of multimedia session initiation. Step 238 is followed by thering/answer/connect process at step 240.

There are multiple events that could cause a trigger to send a messageto subscriber of wireless device 314 via a scrolling ticker message. Forexample, a triggering event may comprise posting of new content by asubscriber, power-on of a subscriber, login of a subscriber, or signingup for new service by a subscriber. Additionally, trigger events couldbe periodic or time-based, and could be generated by servers in thenetwork or wireless devices with or without subscriber intervention.

By way of yet another example, alerts may be generated when subscriberusing UE 14 attempts a call to the subscriber using UE 12 and UE 14 isbusy or otherwise unavailable. Rather than continuing to re-tryestablishing a call with UE 12, UE 14 may opt to have an alert bescrolled to UE 14 when UE 12 becomes available. That alert may includetext only (indicating that the subscriber is available and should bere-dialed), a text message with an embedded pointer to “one click”invocation of a call back, or an automatic generation of a call backsignal upon receipt of the scrolling ticker message.

With respect to FIG. 4, there is shown an alternative embodiment of thepresent invention in which instead of a presence server 30, a conferenceserver 130 is attached as an application server to the IMS core 100. Inthis example, a user may be hosting a conference call. A trigger actionmay be set up such that when another party joins or leaves the call, thescrolling ticker server will send a message to the host and/or otherparticipants indicating the person who has just joined or left the call.As such, instead of a peer-to-peer network protocol session beinginitiated, the invention is used to manage access to and participationin a conference call. In this case, there is a conference server(bridge) 130 in the network. The conference server 130 interfaces to theIMS core 100 and the scrolling ticker server 140. The scrolling ticketserver 140 operate substantially similar scrolling ticket server 40 withmodifications to account for the different network interfaces.

In this embodiment, the scrolling ticker server 140 may, for example,send messages each time a participant connects or disconnects from theconference call. Alternatively, a host of the conference call may usethe notification from the scrolling ticker server 140 as a securityfeature, choosing to admit or deny a would-be conference participant.The notification would be provided through the scrolling ticker server140 to the wireless device 314. The wireless device 314 may control theaccess to the conference directly through communication with the IMScore functionality 100.

Thus, there have been described systems and methods for generatingalerts to a subscriber using a scrolling ticker server 40 upon theoccurrence of certain events and using such alerts for the provision oftelecom services. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that numerouschanges and modifications can be made to the preferred embodiments ofthe invention, and that such changes and modifications can be madewithout departing from the spirit of the invention. An alert may bescheduled for when a previously unavailable party becomes available,thereby generating a scrolling ticker message indicating that party'savailability and offering the option to connect either interactivelybased on the message or automatically with the message serving asnotification only. In addition to simply receiving a scrolling textmessage or a scrolling text message with an embedded pointer, thereceiving wireless device may also generate a vibration and/or audiblealert based on the content or changes thereto. The selection of such analert is configurable on the wireless device or based on commands fromthe network. It is intended, therefore, that the appended claims coverall such equivalent variations as fall within the true spirit and scopeof the invention.

What is claimed:
 1. An apparatus comprising: a processor; and memorycoupled to the processor, the memory comprising executable instructionsthat when executed by the processor cause the processor to effectuateoperations comprising: receiving, by the apparatus, a scrolling tickermessage; and rendering via a repeating dynamic scrolling ticker on theapparatus, the scrolling ticker message comprising an indication of awireless device being powered on or off, an indication of the wirelessdevice being within coverage range or not being within coverage range,an indication of the wireless device accepting messages or not acceptingmessages, and an indication of the wireless device being logged on to anapplication or not being logged on to an application, wherein thescrolling ticker message is received by the apparatus via a systemcomprising: an IP multimedia system core server for receiving a statusof the wireless device; a presence server for receiving the status ofthe other wireless device from the IP multimedia system; and a scrollingticker server for: receiving the status of the wireless device from theIP multimedia system; and generating the scrolling ticker message. 2.The apparatus of claim 1 wherein receiving the status of the wirelessdevice comprises receiving an alert based on a predefined event.
 3. Theapparatus of claim 2 wherein the predefined event comprises at least oneof: powering on the wireless device; a login to at least one of anetwork or service by the wireless device; posting of new content by asubscriber; or a new subscription to a service.
 4. The apparatus ofclaim 1 wherein status of the wireless device is receiving periodically.5. The apparatus of claim 1 the operations further comprising providing,by the apparatus, an indication of a request to establish acommunication session with the wireless device.
 6. The apparatus ofclaim 1, the operations further comprising: receiving a second scrollingticker message for triggering an automatic generation of a call backsignal.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the scrolling ticker messageis received upon a change in the status of the wireless device.
 8. Anapparatus comprising: a processor; and memory coupled to the processor,the memory comprising executable instructions that when executed by theprocessor cause the processor to effectuate operations comprising:receiving, by the apparatus, a scrolling ticker message; and renderingvia a repeating dynamic scrolling ticker on the apparatus, the scrollingticker message comprising: an embedded pointer for connecting theapparatus to a conference call with a wireless device; clicking thescrolling ticker message invokes a one-click connection to theconference call; the scrolling ticker comprises an indication of thewireless device being powered on or off; the scrolling ticker comprisesan indication of the wireless device being within coverage range or notbeing within coverage range; the scrolling ticker comprises anindication of the wireless device accepting messages or not acceptingmessages, and an indication of the wireless device being logged on to anapplication or not being logged on to an application; and the scrollingticker message is received by the apparatus via a system comprising: anIP multimedia system core server for receiving a status of the wirelessdevice; a presence server for receiving the status of the other wirelessdevice from the IP multimedia system; and a scrolling ticker server for: receiving the status of the wireless device from the IP multimediasystem; and  generating the scrolling ticker message.
 9. The apparatusof claim 8, wherein receiving the status of the wireless devicecomprises receiving an alert based on powering on the wireless device.10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein receiving the status of thewireless device comprises receiving an alert based on a login to anetwork by the wireless device.
 10. The apparatus of claim 8, whereinreceiving the status of the wireless device comprises receiving an alertbased on a login to a service by the wireless device.
 11. The apparatusof claim 8, wherein receiving the status of the wireless devicecomprises receiving an alert based on a new subscription to a service.12. The apparatus of claim 8, the operations further comprising: upon aparticipant of the conference call disconnecting from the conferencecall, receiving a second scrolling ticker message comprising anotification that the participant has disconnected from the conferencecall.
 13. The apparatus of claim 8, the operations further comprising:receiving a second scrolling ticker message for triggering an automaticgeneration of a call back signal.
 14. Memory comprising executableinstructions that when executed by a processor cause the processor toeffectuate operations comprising: a processor; and memory coupled to theprocessor, the memory comprising executable instructions that whenexecuted by the processor cause the processor to effectuate operationscomprising: receiving, by the apparatus, a scrolling ticker message; andrendering via a repeating dynamic scrolling ticker on the apparatus, thescrolling ticker message comprising an indication of a wireless devicebeing powered on or off, an indication of the wireless device beingwithin coverage range or not being within coverage range, an indicationof the wireless device accepting messages or not accepting messages, andan indication of the wireless device being logged on to an applicationor not being logged on to an application, wherein the scrolling tickermessage is received by the apparatus via a system comprising: an IPmultimedia system core server for receiving a status of the wirelessdevice; a presence server for receiving the status of the other wirelessdevice from the IP multimedia system; and a scrolling ticker server for:receiving the status of the wireless device from the IP multimediasystem; and generating the scrolling ticker message. receiving, by theapparatus, a scrolling ticker message; and rendering via a repeatingdynamic scrolling ticker on the apparatus, the scrolling ticker messagecomprising an indication of a wireless device being powered on or off,an indication of the wireless device being within coverage range or notbeing within coverage range, an indication of the wireless deviceaccepting messages or not accepting messages, and an indication of thewireless device being logged on to an application or not being logged onto an application, wherein the scrolling ticker message is received bythe apparatus via a system comprising: an IP multimedia system coreserver for receiving a status of the wireless device; a presence serverfor receiving the status of the other wireless device from the IPmultimedia system; and a scrolling ticker server for: receiving thestatus of the wireless device from the IP multimedia system; andgenerating the scrolling ticker message.
 15. The memory of claim 14wherein receiving the status of the wireless device comprises receivingan alert based on a predefined event.
 16. The memory of claim 15 whereinthe predefined event comprises at least one of: powering on the wirelessdevice; a login to at least one of a network or service by the wirelessdevice; posting of new content by a subscriber; or a new subscription toa service.
 17. The memory of claim 14 wherein status of the wirelessdevice is receiving periodically.
 18. The memory of claim 14 theoperations further comprising providing, by the apparatus, an indicationof a request to establish a communication session with the wirelessdevice.
 19. The memory of claim 14, the operations further comprising:receiving a second scrolling ticker message for triggering an automaticgeneration of a call back signal.
 20. The memory of claim 14 wherein thescrolling ticker message is received upon a change in the status of thewireless device.